IW Capital has invested in Lucida Medical, a UK-based healthtech company using AI to help clinicians diagnose prostate cancer from MRI scans faster and more accurately. The £8.7m funding round includes participation from existing investors, XTX Ventures
and Macmillan Cancer Support.

Lucida’s AI-powered diagnostic service is already working within the NHS to transform diagnostics at a time when cancer rates are rising and radiology capacity is failing to keep pace.

The ability to read MRI scans quickly and efficiently has become central to prostate cancer diagnoses and treatment pathways but, as the Royal College of Radiologists estimates, there is currently a 30% shortfall in clinical radiologists across the UK – a shortfall which could rise to 40% by 2028. As a result, cancer scans are taking longer to read which can mean weeks of anxiety for patients, an increased likelihood of later-stage diagnoses and higher treatment complexity and cost.